Suspect in temptress theft ring faces charges in three pending cases

December 1, 2013|By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

She prompted the release last spring of a composite sketch and the public warning from police for South Florida men to "Watch Out for Crystal," a prolific member of a quartet of bar-hopping women accused of drugging and swindling men.

The suspect, Subhanna Beyah, 25, now has been moved from one South Florida jail to another as she simultaneously faces three pending theft cases in Broward and Miami-Dade courts. If convicted, Beyah could go to prison for at least 30 years.

"This defendant is well known to police officers as an ex-prostitute whom we believe now makes her money drugging and robbing wealthy men, mostly visitors from out of town," said Terry Chavez, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

In one of the three cases, she has been jailed since the summer in Miami on accusations that she cleaned out a New York Giants player's Fontainebleau Hotel room safe of nearly a half-million dollars' worth of jewelry and watches.

Earlier this month, she was delivered to a Broward jail to answer to charges in the other two cases.

In two separate incidents from last spring, two Pompano Beach men believe that after inviting Beyah to their homes, she drugged them into unconciousness before walking away with their cash, high-end watches, handguns and diamonds, police reports show.

Beyah pleaded not guilty Nov. 20 to the resulting grand theft charges. Her next hearing, to determine who her lawyer will be, is scheduled for Monday.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Miami expect Beyah back in their jurisdiction for a tentative Wednesday trial date on the Fontainebleau case.

State prosecutors believe Beyah also drugged the New York Giants player, Shaun Rogers, before breaking into his room safe while he slept, Chavez said.

Two months after the Broward Sheriff's Office released the composite sketch and made its warning, detectives identified Beyah as "Crystal," along with three alleged cohorts: Johnnina Miller, 25; Keshia Clark, 27; and Ryan Elkins, 24.

Clark immediately turned herself in to police, posted $5,000 bond and was released.

Miller was arrested Oct. 5 in New York and was released five days later after posting $10,000 bond. She pleaded not guilty at a Nov. 12 court hearing in Broward.

Only Elkins remains at large. Authorities missed a chance to arrest her when — despite an active arrest warrant — she came and went from a Broward court date in July. Her defense attorney has since withdrawn from her case.

"Hopefully, these women and the charges they face will be a lesson to other criminals contemplating this dangerous crime," said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office. "They weren't just robbing their victims; they were going into their homes and drugging them. The outcomes could have been much worse."

It was a March 3 incident that prompted the "Crystal"composite sketch. A 45-year-old Pompano Beach man reported meeting a woman who identified herself as Crystal at the neighboring bars YOLO and Vibe on Las Olas Boulevard.

Once they returned to his home, Beyah served him a vodka cocktail that knocked him out until the next afternoon. When he awoke he was missing $6,000 cash and four watches valued at nearly $100,000, according to a police report.

Beyah's other pending Broward case stems from April 27, when police say Beyah teamed up with Elkins to take a 54-year-old Pompano Beach man for two 9 mm Glock handguns, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun, a Rolex watch and three 3.5-carat marquise diamonds valued at more than $250,000, according to an arrest affidvit.

Beyah distracted the man while Elkins made him a drink, the affidavit said. Within 20 minutes of consuming it, the man "entered what he described as a drug-like state and eventually became unconscious," it said.

When he awoke several hours later, the women and his valuables were gone.

Beyah has been arrested in Florida nearly two dozen times for charges ranging from forgery to fraud, prostitution to use of stolen credit cards, records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show.

She was born in Queens, N.Y., has a child, and the first of her nine Florida prostitution arrests was at age 14, records show.

Chameleon-like, her eye color changes from brown to blue to gray as frequently as her hairstyle shifts from short to long to wavy to slicked to bobbed, a series of mug shots show.

Likewise with her name. Records show that she has used a string of aliases: Christina More, Christian Moore, Christine Brown, Christin Miller, Crystal Alex Jones and Fatima Brown.

Before her three pending South Florida cases, Beyah made headlines in New York in 2009 for similar allegations. She was arrested with two accomplices that September after allegedly luring a lawyer into their vehicle with a promise of giving him a ride to an after-hours party and instead took him for $1,600, according to the New York Post.